What are you using your expression pedal for?

Fleece

Fleece

Member
I recently bought an EV-1 pedal, intending to use it as a wah, but have since reverted to my Weeping Demon wah. So I'll need to repurpose the EV-1 and having never used an expression or volume pedal before, I'm curious how others use theirs.
 
Interesting question.

I am getting Ax8, and starting out, I will not be using any expression pedals. I have not used wah for a long time, and I would only use a volume pedal for swells, or if I was standing in the crowd FOH.
I could find use for an expression pedal for whammy effects.

Back in the nineties, I was using a digitech board, and I had a preset where I controlled the gain/distortion level with the expression pedal. That was an extremely versatile and useful preset.
 
Wow, controlling the gain level sounds incredibly useful, and exactly why I posed the question.

I was about to set it up as a basic volume pedal, but it occurs to me that the Axe could make much more interesting use out of it: like controlling gain. I'd love to hear from someone who has it set up like that!
 
I'm going to try that out. I think you'd also need to tie the level of whatever block you're controlling the gain of to the same pedal - backwards. That way you could goose up the drive without getting a volume increase (or getting as much volume increase as you want). I could also see tying it to the level controls of a drive block and an amp block, so that the drive can push the amp block harder without a volume increase.
 
My #1 acts as a volume pedal that increases reverb time & mix and delay feedback as the volume is rolled off.

My #2 is a wildcard that ranges from simple wah to a -1 octave pitch shifter that also brings in a tremolo and varies its rate.

Oh, and when I say volume pedal, I mean MV. I find it more pleasant and usable across the range I set it for than either pregain or output.
 
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I have 3 assigen. 1 is permanent whammy and 2 is often whammy (1 oct up). 2+3 i use for various fxs depending on the song e.g. Input drive, rotary speed, reverb mix, tremolo dept and delay etc. for intros i sometimes use it for high- and low pass filter, shifting the pedal to open and close the sound. The intro in the video in my signature below is a perfect example hereof. In that particular song, i use the last expression pedal changes delay feed back from 0 to approx 19% live, to get a bit more body
to the riff..
 
I also use 3. They do slightly different things depending on the preset.

#1 is used for volume control of the Cab block(s) In a couple of presets it lowers the electric guitar volume as it raises my acoustic sim volume. (morphing)

#2 is Wah (most of the time) and Delay stuff.

#3 is acoustic sim volume or harmonizer levels.
 
I use two. One that is springloaded and is set to control wah only. The other one is a Boss FL500 which I use for whammy, talkbox, rotary speed, volume, fx mix, engaging delay hold, controlling ringmodulators, modifying pitch on synth block, engaging reverse delay mix (á la Belew), hell it's a million uses depending on the preset.
 
Fleece said:
Wow, controlling the gain level sounds incredibly useful, and exactly why I posed the question.

I was about to set it up as a basic volume pedal, but it occurs to me that the Axe could make much more interesting use out of it: like controlling gain. I'd love to hear from someone who has it set up like that!
Click to expand...

There's also the whole "morphing" thing, where you use a pedal to change many elements of your tone simultaneously.

Back in the early days of my experience with midi using the ART SGX-2000 (and later with a Johnson JM150 modeling amp), I resorted to doing this because I couldn't stand the dropouts during patch changes. I had 5 or 6 parameters all tied to 1 expression pedal and I would use it to morph from a clean sound to a lead sound.

Forum member Clarky has posted a whole methodology on doing this.
 
I have 2 on my controller. I generally reserve one for wah and the second varies per preset. Sometimes rotary speed, sometimes univibe rate, sometimes shimmer mix. One of the strongest features of the Axe-FX is the flexibility of the expression controls and other such controllers like envelope/LFO/ADSR, etc.
 
I use 3 expression pedals, but they are global:

Spring loaded for wah
Spring loaded for whammy
Standard for Looper volume
 
This whole tone morphing thing sounds incredible. I found Clarky's post about his method -- here's a link for the lazy: http://forum.fractalaudio.com/threads/tone-morphing-stepbystep.88679/

unix-guy said:
There's also the whole "morphing" thing, where you use a pedal to change many elements of your tone simultaneously.

Back in the early days of my experience with midi using the ART SGX-2000 (and later with a Johnson JM150 modeling amp), I resorted to doing this because I couldn't stand the dropouts during patch changes. I had 5 or 6 parameters all tied to 1 expression pedal and I would use it to morph from a clean sound to a lead sound.

Forum member Clarky has posted a whole methodology on doing this.
Click to expand...
 
I have two pedals that I use for everything...volume, gain, delay level/time/regen, pitch shift level/interval, flange level, reverb level, effects on/off, you name it. If a parameter can be assigned, I'll probably use with an expression pedal at some point.
 
I have 3 on my board (Ernie Ball VP JR's - I like that they are straight in design, not flared, as they fit the board better to my eye. I also like the size and action of these pedals).

#1 is a straight up volume pedal, just like the knob on my guitar.
#2 is labeled FX1, and is a wah/whammy pedal most of the time, depending on the preset.
#3 is FX 2, and does special effects, like adjusting delay mix, ray gun sounds, morphing, or whatever is not covered by #1 and #2.
 
I would look at controlling the delay level (dry versus wet) with a control pedal, that in combination with tempo tapping makes most delay effects very malleable for various songs and parts including pushing the wet up during guitar solos.)
 
In my (currently non-Fractal-setup) I use two expression pedals:
One for wah/rotary speed
One for delay mix/feedback control +whammy and other weird stuff.

When I finally get an AX8 (it might take a while as I live in Europe) I'm planning on using one expression pedal strictly for Delay mix/feedback, and use the other one for pretty much everything else - mainly wah and rotary speed.
 
#1 Always volume (post cab block)
#2 Usually something odd, related to delay, rotary, trem, or something else out of the ordinary
#3 usually wah, but occasionally another odd item
 
I have 4 pedals. Generally:
1. Wah (auto on)
2. Activate and bring in flanger (auto on with offset at 0 degrees)
3. Add more delay and volume a couple db for solos- the "11 pedal"
4. Newly added - will vary, but am planning to use to mix in harmonizer on certain presets

I sometimes use #3 as an overall volume pedal at the end of the chain but only in a couple of my presets
 
Currently, I am using exp 1 for output volume and exp 2 for anything else I may need, (morphing, pre delay swells, gain control,wag).
I'm thinking about changing exp 1 to control a volume block instead of output volume though, it would free up the other exp and I'm pretty much just using exp 1 as a mute switch right now.
 
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